IBOO 


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®l)c  €l)ristian  Jubilee. 


THE   SERMON 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF  THB  CBLEB&ATION  OF  TBX 


(iDne  Mmhth  mh  fitM^  Inntnerisarq 


SOClETlf  FOR  THB  PROPAGATIOS  OF  THE  GOSPEL 

PREACHED    BY   APPOINTMENT 

IN  TRINITY  CHURCH,  NEW-YORK, 

BY  THE  REV.  JOHN  MC  VICKAR,  S.  T.  D., 

PROFBSeaR  OF  INTELLKCTDAL  AND  MORAL  PKILOSOPHV  IN  COLUMBIA  COLLEGE,  NKW-YORK  CITY. 


Publielied   at  the  Request  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Diocese    of 
New-York,  and  of  the  Corporation  of  Trinity  Church. 


K'ctD-J^orlx: 
DANIEL    DANA,    Jr.,    Agent, 

20    John-Stkeet. 
1851. 


^500 


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M 


SERMON. 


A  JUBILEE  SHALL  THAT  FIFTIETH  YEAR  BE  TO  YOU. — ^Lcvit.  XXV.  11. 

Of  the  Levitical  law  tlie  shadows  are  gone,  but  the 
^       substance   remains.      With   the  true   Paschal   Lamb 
came  in  the  true  Jubilee  year,  "  the  acceptable  year 
of  the  Lord,"  when  the  spiritually  bound  were  to  go 
tree,    and   "Ephraim   was   not   to   envy  Judah,   nor 
Judah  to  vex  Ephraim."     Therefore  in  that  year  did 
our  Blessed  Lord  begin  His    ministry,  as  His   own 
^       words  clearly  show,  when,  after  publicly  reading  its 
g      prophetic  picture,  He  closed  the  book  and  said,  "  This 
day  is  this  Scripture  fulfilled  in  your  ears."     Thus  did 
Christ  stamp  with  His  name  the  Jewish  Jubilee,  as  the 
o      type   and  forerunning  shadow   of  His  coming ;  and 
o      consequently  each  Christian  Jubilee,  as  a  thankful  me- 
cQ      morial  of  His  havinsr  come.     In  this  broad  Catholic 
z      light  does  this  festival  first  present  itself  as  "  part  and 
3     j)arcel"  of  that  law  which  Christ  came  to  fulfil,  and 
not  to  annul ;  and  obligatory,  therefore,  as  a  notation 
of  Christian  time  on  every  branch  of  Christ's  Church 
Catholic.     But   to  this  general   duty   we   come   this 
day  under  a  special  call,  viz.,  to  celebrate  its  third  re- 
turn in  the  History  of  the  Venerable  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  our  Mother  Church  of 
England,  the  earliest  and  greatest  Missionary  Society 
since  the  Reformation,  and  the  one  to  whose  labors 


we,  under  God,  are  here  indebted  for  our  Gospel 
light,  as  well  as  for  a  long  continuance  of  care  and  li- 
beral support.  It  is  indeed  a  day  to  be  much,  noted, 
for  the  blessings  of  which  God  hath  made  that  society 
the  channel ;  and  that  not  in  its  local  home  only  :  but 
wherever  its  bountiful  hand  has  gone,  and  its  Gospel 
mark  been  left ;  wherever  its  missionaries  have 
preached  the  glad  tidings,  and  gathered  souls  for 
Christ.  And  where,  I  may  ask,  have  they  not  ?  Its 
missions  have  girdled  the  earth,  so  that  we  may  truly 
say,  "  on  them  the  sun  never  sets" — from  Labrador  to 
Australia,  from  the  plains  of  Hindostan  and  the 
coasts  of  China  to  the  far  off  islands  of  the  Pacific. 
To  all  these  lands  has  this  day  gone  forth  a  trumpet- 
tone,  summoning  her  sons  to  the  festival.  Literally 
by  trumpet-tone  were  the  Jews  of  old  brought  to- 
gether :  but  we  by  a  more  touching  summons,  even  by 
words  of  brotherly  love  addressed  to  us  as  to  a  sister 
Church  (sister,  yet  daughter),  from  that  high-placed 
Christian  Bishop,  the  Primate  of  all  England,  em- 
powered by  place  and  station  to  speak  that  call — a  call 
to  united  prayer  and  praise — of  all  Churches,  wherever 
scattered,  who  have  sprung  from  the  same  Christian  an- 
cestry, and  are  blest  with  the  Christian  ministry  and 
Sacraments  through  the  same  pure  and  primitive  chan- 
nel, the  Apostolic  Church  of  England  !*     In  such  holy 

•  With  what  feelings  of  respect  and  love  the  Venerable  Society  was 
regarded  by  one  eminent  American  Churchman,  the  following  incident 
will  show,  which  I  learned  from  an  intimate  friend  of  the  late  Hon.  Rufus 
King — a  friend  who  was  often  with  him  in  his  last  sickness.  Shortly  before 
his  departure  to  a  better  world,  among  many  interesting  remarks,  he 
said:  "  Sir,  I  have  been  thinking  of  England,  of  her  ancient  and  apostolic 
Church,  and  her  noble  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel.  Sir,  that 
Society  is  the  brighest  light  in  the  candlestick  of  the  Reformation  ;  it  has 
done  more,  and  is  doing  more,  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  than  all  Christendom 
united." 


union,  then,  we  tMs  day  meet :  even  as  dispersed  breth- 
ren meet  around  some  old  and  venerated  roof  tree, 
in  acknowledgment  of  their  common  lineage,  and  in 
renewal  of  their  common  faith,  giving  and  receiving 
fraternal  pledges,  strengthening  the  feeble  knees,  and 
•adding  courage  to  failing  hearts',  and  saying  each  to 
the  others,  "  Brethren,  good  cheer."  "  Sursum  cordcH'' — 
"  Lift  up  your  hearts."  Thus  are  we  to  meet ;  and  as 
oft,  in  this  cold  world,  the  remembrance  of  a  mother's 
milk,  and  of  prayers  learned  at  a  mother's  knee,  has 
renewed  the  freshness  of  brethren's  love  decayed :  so 
let  it  be  with  us ;  and  let  coldness,  and  distrust,  and 
fear,  wherever  such  feelings  be  found,  be  exchanged 
this  day  for  the  confidence  of  our  Christian  child- 
hood, when  all  was  bright  without,  because  all  was  at 
peace  within. 

But  we  have  yet  to  learn  what  the  Jubilee  in  its 
original  divine  appointment  meant,  and  to  what  duties 
it  summoned :  for  to  the  same,  under  Christian  inter- 
pretation, are  we  bound  now.  Though  man  may  fix 
its  eras^  he  cannot  determine  its  duties.  Its  worldly 
interpretation  is  obvious — "  rejoicing."  But  the  Chris 
fcian  must  look  deeper,  and  find  its  "obligations." 
Now  for  these,  whether  we  look  to  the  derivation  of  the 
name*  or  to  the  practices  enjoined,  we  are  led  equally 
to  the  same  two-fold  meaning,  viz.,  to  the  privilege  of 
"  rejoicing,"  and  to  the  task  of  "  restitution :" — to  the 
joy  of  the  festival ;  and  to  the  labor  of  restoring,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  promised  land,  the  tribes  and  fami- 
lies of  Israel  to  their  primitive  limits,   and  to  their 

*  Whether  from  Sjr,  the  name  of  the  trumpet;  or  more  prol)ably,  as 
Calmet  derives  the  word,  from  the  Hebrew  word  S'^in,  to  recall  or  bring 
baek.  The  Septuagint  translators  give  the  latter — Ujifmf,  remission — 
eras  rnf  aupcaco);,  the  year  of  liberty,  or  setting  back. 

For  its  literal  duties,  see  Leviticus,  xxv.  10-46  :  for  its  sj)iritual,  Isaiah, 
Ixi.  1-3. 


God-given  jBi'eedom.  To  tlie  same  duties,  then,  are  we 
now  led.  For  as  the  Churcli  of  Christ  is  the  true  Israel 
of  God,  and  the  whole  earth  its  "  promised  land :"  so 
whatever  of  duty  or  right  belonged  to  the  typical 
Church  in  the  land  of  Israel,  belongs  now  to  the  spiritual 
within  the  bounds  of  Christendom ;  and  what  the  Ju- 
bilee then  was  to  the  branches  of  that  vine  which 
God  brought  out  of  Egy}:>t,  the  Jubilee  noio  is  to  the 
branches  of  that  wild  olive  tree  which  Christ  hath  ^- 
grafted  on  the  old  stock — a  day  of  restitution,  as  well 
as  a  day  of  rejoicing. 

And  what  a  noble  feature  (humanly  speaking)  in 
the  Mosaic  law  the  Jubilee  is,  and  what  an  argument 
of  its  Di\dne  Legation !  What  other  legislator  than 
Moses  ever  ventured  on  such  a  unit  of  time  as  fifty 
years,  cutting  off,  as  it  does,  all  the  passing  inter- 
ests of  the  living  generation?  The  wisdom  of  the 
Greeks  counted  but  by  Olympiads,  and  Rome  noted 
her  power  but  by  Lustra — eras  of  four  and  five  years  : 
for  both  were  "  of  the  earth,  earthy."  It  was  left  to 
the  despised  Jew  to  prefigure,  in  His  law,  a  kingdom 
not  of  this  world ;  and  to  employ  a  notation  of  time 
corresponding,  in  some  measure,  to  His  ser^'ice  with 
whom  "  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day."  On 
this  point,  as  on  too  many  others,  has  the  Church  of 
Rome  deviated  from  the  words  of  Scripture  through 
worldly  policy ;  and,  in  curtailing  the  Jubilee  period 
from  fifty  to  twenty-five  years,  has  dropped  from  it  its 
heavenly  feature,  and  made  of  it,  an  institution  human 
and  not  di\dne.* 

*  In  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  Jubilee  was  first  establishetl  by  Boni- 
face VII-,  in  1300,  and  it  was  only  to  return  every  hundred  years.  But  the 
first  celebration  brought  in  such  store  of  wealth,  that  Clement  VI.,  in 
1313,  reduced  it  to  the  period  of  fifty  years;  Urban  VI.,  in  1389,  ap- 
pointed it  to  be  held  every  thirty-five  years;  and  Sixtus  IV.,  in  1473, 
brought  it  down  to  every  twenty-five  years. 


But  for  its  applications  :  In  its  primary  sense,  the 
Jubilee  among  Christians  is  a  call  to  thankful  imion 
and  to  trustful  faith.  Touching  the  first — I  speak  not 
here  of  any  partial  union — but  of  the  general  gather- 
ing this  day  into  one,  of  the  heart  and  strength  of  the 
Anglican  communion,  wherever,  through  God's  provi- 
dence, and  the  labors  of  this  its  blessed  instru- 
ment, it  hath  spread,  taken  root,  and  borne  fruit. 
North,  south,  east,  west,  in  every  quarter  of  the  globe, 
in  every  corner  of  the  earth,  in  almost  every  race  and 
tribe  of  man  (though  in  Christ  all  tribes  be  (me)^ 
beginning  with  that  strong  race,  now  so  widely  scat- 
tered, and  from  which  we  ourselves  are  mainly  sprung 
— a  race  destined,  it  would  seem,  to  great  ends  in 
God's  providence,  both  temporal  and  spiritual — down, 
to  the  feebler  scattered  tribes  of  earth,  who  have  been 
blest  through  them: — from  all  these  will  this  day 
arise,  with  the  circling  sun,  such  a  burst  of  thankful 
praise  as  earth  hath  seldom  heard  ;  and  that,  too,  in 
words  familiar  to  our  ears — our  own  noble  Liturgy — 
invoking  blessings  through  the  all-prevailing  Name  on 
the  Church  which  planned,  and  on  her  sons  who  have 
labored,  and  still  labor,  in  this  great  and  holy  cause 
of  Missions.  God,  in  His  mercy,  grant  that  those 
prayers  may  be  heard,  and  come  down  on  that  Church 
and  land  in  showered  blessings !  As  to  ourselves, 
American  Churchmen,  our  lamp  of  light  was  lighted 
from  theirs.  We  owe  them  then  a  debt  we  never 
can  repay,  but  by  our  prayers.  Yet  with  these — who 
can  tell  how  richly  !  And  in  this  their  hour  of  trial, 
we  may  bring  comfort  and  strength  to  many  a  fearful 
heart  and  many  a  failing  liaud,  through  that  voice  of 
prayer,  that  will  this  day  come  to  them  from  across 
mighty  watei-s,  freighted  witli  blessings,  from  Churches 


8 

wiiicli  their  zeal  liatli  founded,  and  altars  whicli  their 
piety  hath  erected. 

It  would  seem  (as  indeed  it  is)  a  providential  con- 
currence, that  to  our  Mother  Church  of  England, 
betrayed  and  wounded  as  she  now  is  in  the  House  of 
her  Friends — sitting  disconsolate  like  Israel  of  old,  the 
Vii'gin  of  Zion  mourning  her  sons  slaughtered  in  her 
streets,  solitary,  and  with  none  to  comfort  her — that, 
in  such  depth  of  sorrow,  this  day  of  Jubilee  should 
arise,  bringing  her  sons  from  far,  and  her  daughters 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  to  comfort  her,  to  wipe 
the  tears  from  her  cheeks,  and  say  to  the  mother  of 
their  joy :  "  Mother  !  thou  art  not  alone.  Behold  thy 
progeny !  Take  us  to  thine  arms ;  and,  in  the  love  6f 
thy  faithful  children,  forget  the  reproaches  of  thy 
widowhood,  and  fear  not  the  malice  of  thy  foes."  And 
we  may  imagine  them  going  on  further  to  say: 
"  Should  even  thy  house  be  left  unto  thee  desolate :  yet 
remember  that  the  Lord,  thine  Husband,  is  Lord  also 
of  the  whole  earth,  and  hath  many  fair  mansions  in 
distant  lands,  where  thou  mayest  find  a  more  thankful 
home,  and  see  the  good  seed  thou  hast  scattered  in  the 
wilderness  grown  up  into  a  mighty  hai'vest,  that  wDl 
sustain  thee,  though  famine  come  upon  thee  in  thy 
native  land,  defrauded,  as  thou  there  art,  of  thy  I'iglitful 
inheritance — the  faith,  and  love,  and  reverential  obedi- 
ence of  those  who  still  call  themselves  thy  sons." 
Such,  doubtless,  will  be  the  feeling  aroused,  if  not  the 
words  spoken  this  day ;  and  may  we  not  hope  that 
such  united  response  from  millions  wlQ  awaken,  even 
in  worldly  statesmen,  respect  at  least,  if  not  fear,  for  a 
communion  that  has  thus  encircled  the  earth  Avith  its 
missions,  and  half  filled  it  with  its  sons,  blessing  and 
blessed  wherever  it  has  gone.     We  think  it  will,  and 


that  such  voice  will  strike  with  surprise  cold  Mends 
as  well  as  blinded  enemies — all,  in  short,  save  the 
Church's  loving  sons,  whose  hearts  have  gone  with  her 
wherever  her  foot  has  gone ;  into  the  wilderness,  as  well 
as  crowded  cities ;  into  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  as 
well  as  the  palaces  of  the  rich :  and  who  have  traced 
her  growth,  step  by  step,  as  men  watch  the  growth  of 
that  they  love.  What  though  England,  its  once 
bright  home,  be  for  a  season  darkened,  where  Apos- 
tles or  apostolic  men  planted  it:  yet  hath  it  risen 
cloudless  on  other  and  wider  lands.  Nor  yet  for  the 
Church  in  England  have  we  fear  !  While  her  boughs 
have  been  lopped,  her  root  hath  been  strengthened ;  and 
besides,  hath  not  the  year  of  Jubilee  now  come  round, 
and  is  not  that  a  year  of  trustful  faith  ?  In  it,  the 
whole  land  of  Israel  was  left  desolate  by  God's  own 
command,  unploughed  and  unsown,  that  His  people 
might  know  from  whose  hand  came  the  increase. 
Even  so  now,  may  we,  for  one  faithful  tribe  of  the 
true  Israel,  trust  that  no  desolation  of  man  shall  pre- 
vail against  Chi'ist's  blessing :  but  that  when  patience 
hath  had  its  perfect  work,  and  trial  as  by  fire  hath 
purged  away  her  dross — though  carrying  away  in  the 
rude  process  some  pure  gold  with  it — the  sun  of 
God's  favor  will  again  shine  bright  upon  her  head,  her 
days  of  widowhood  be  past,  and  robes  of  joy  and 
gladness  be  again  resumed.  To  this  hopeful  faith,  too, 
all  her  past  history  leads  us.  The  Church  of  England 
hath  seen  darker  days,  and  gone  through  deeper  trials ; 
and  through  them  all,  her  gracious  Lord  and  Master 
hatli  led  her  safe.  The  gates  of  hell  have  not  been 
permitted  to  prevail  against  lier;  yet  have  her 
trials,  even  from  her  youth  up,  been  sore  and  manifold. 
It  may  be  well  for  a  moment  to  look  at  these. 


10 

Feeeboen,  in  tlie  apostolic  age,  even  wliile  Paul  yet 
preached,  and  the  laving  disciple  wrote,  with  the  cross 
on  her  brow,  and  that  not  from  Roman  hands :  the 
Church  of  Britain  was  yet,  by  force  or  guile,  step  by 
step,  brought  eventually  under  the  Papal  yoke.  This 
chain  of  slavery,  with  God's  blessing,  she  at  length  cast 
off;  and,  under  Heaven-led  guidance,  returned  to  her 
primitive  condition,  to  her  pure  apostolic  faith,  and  to 
her  Christian  freedom,  as  an  independent  branch  of 
Christ's  Church  Catholic.  Again,  when  out  of  her  own 
bosom  came  forth  rebellious  sons  who,  with  parricidal 
hand,  struck  down  her  glories  in  the  dust,  desecrating 
her  temples  and  defiling  her  altars,  and  leaving  her,  to 
human  eyes,  with  a  death-wound  in  the  bare  wilder- 
ness :  from  this,  too,  she  arose ;  for  the  Good  Samari- 
tan still  had  pity  on  her,  and  bound  up  her  wound, 
pouiing  in  oil  and  wine,  and  again  there  was  joy  and 
peace  in  her  dwellings.  And  now,  in  her  present 
straits,  when,  with  manacled  hands  and  a  gagged 
moiith,  she  must  bear  in  constrained  silence  the  taunts 
of  those  who  have  betrayed  her,  or  the  still  harder 
trial  of  their  galling  patronage:  sliall  we,  can  we 
doubt  but  that  this  trial,  too,  will  pass,  and  prove  to 
her  but  a  purifying  process  ; — only  so  be  that  she  re- 
main steadfast  to  her  principles  and  her  faith,  alike 
Catholic  and  Anglican  ?  Surely  not !  As  Ave  pray  for 
it,  so  we  look  for  it ;  and  with  an  eye  of  faith  can  see 
already  many  cheering  symptoms  of  it,  like  streaks  of 
light  in  the  distant  horizon,  showing  the  passing  of 
the  storm.  Her  candlestick  is  not,  we  trust,  to  be  re- 
moved, nor  its  pure  light  dimmed.  It  hath  lighted 
too  many  on  their  Heavenly  way,  to  be  itself  put 
out.     She  hath  been  the  mother  of  too  many  glorious 


11 

missions,  not  herself  to  practice  what  she  hath  taught 
to  others — ^how  to  sanctify  God's  afflictive  hand. 

Among  the  noble  lessons  we  may  yet  learn  from 
her,  and  of  them  the  first  a  mission-planted  Church 
like  ours  should  learn,  is,  how  missions  are  to  be,  with 
a  blessing,  planted.  The  records  of  this  day  teach  us 
this  lesson :  That  the  Church  should  he  planted  in  its 
integrity^  as  a  living  plant ;  not  maimed  and  mutilated, 
a  tree  without  a  root,  a  body  without  a  head,  a 
mission  without  that  inward  life  which  Christ  impart- 
ed to  his  Mission  when  he  breathed  on  His  Apostles, 
and  said:  "Keceive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost;"  "Take  ye 
power  ;"  "  As  I  send  you,  even  so  send  ye." 

This  lesson,  were  we  left  but  to  human  experience 
to  learn,  how  plain  would  this  day  make  it !  For 
what  defect  was  it  that  made  our  own  colonial  growth 
so  slow,  while  worldly  rulers  turned  a  deaf  ear,  for  a 
hundred  years,  to  the  Church's  cry  for  Bishops? 
What,  again,  has  made  so  rapid  the  growth  of  Eng- 
land's later  missions,  but  the  presence  of  that  which 
was  here  denied  ?  For  example :  sixteen  Colonial 
Bishops  have,  within  twelve  years  after  their  appoint- 
ment, gathered  around  them  a  greater  array  of  clergy- 
men, than  were  found  in  the  whole  American  colonies 
after  more  than  a  century  of  solitary  and  yet  faithful 
labor.  Thus,  Newfoundland  has  advanced  in  twelve 
years  from  ten  clergymen  to  forty-five  ;  the  Cape,  from 
tliirteen  to  forty-eight ;  Port  Philip,  from  three  to 
twenty  ;  and  the  total  of  the  nine  Dioceses  which  have 
alone  reported,  from  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  to 
four  hundred  and  twenty.  Add  to  this  our  own  happy 
experience,  both  national  and  diocesan,  of  the  unpre- 
cedented increase  of  the  Church  since  we  Imve  had 
Bishops  :   and  it  is  clear  that,  least  of  all,  sliould  the 


12 

American  Churcli  be  slow  in  learning  this  lesson.  Let 
us  then  both  learn  and  practice  it,  and  on  that  far-off 
coast,  which  is  to  us  and  our  Church  now,  what  we 
then  were  to  our  Mother  Church  of  England — 
"Missionary  ground" — ^let  us  plant  the  Church  at 
once ;  not  as  we  have  hitherto  done,  in  the  solitary- 
feebleness  of  isolated  missionaries :  but  in  the  integrity 
of  all  its  parts,  and  the  fullness  of  all  its  powers,  even 
as  the  Apostles  planted  their  primitive  Churches,  as 
Paul  planted  them  in  Crete  and  Ephesus,  and  as  our 
Apostolic  Mother  is  now  planting  her  Colonial 
Churches,  and  to  which  God  is  giving  such  large  in- 
crease. And  to  this  end  it  would  seem  like  a  provi- 
dential concurrence,  that  to  the  Mission  in  Oregon,  on 
that  coast,  are  the  free-will  offerings  of  the  Church  in 
our  diocese,  on  this  Jubilee,  primarily  and  by  name 
commended. 

But  I  would  plead  here,  too,  for  the  application  of 
our  rule  in  another  case.  Let  not  the  Indian  race  be 
forgotten  in  our  land — ^a  race  whom  we  cannot  domes- 
ticate, and  whom  thus  far  we  have  failed  to  Christian- 
ize. To  missions  among  them,  whether  of  our  own,  or 
any  other  branch,  God  hath  not  given  permanent  in- 
crease. They  have  all  had  but  a  sickly  growth.  For 
Rome  gave  them  no  personal  freedom ;  Protestant 
missions,  no  apostolic  creed ;  and  our  own  Church  has 
given  to  them  no  enduring  life :  so  that  the  Gospel  has 
been  ever,  to  the  Red  man,  but  an  imposed  yoke ;  the 
religion  of  the  pale  faces — his  ruler,  or  his  enemy — 
the  badge  therefore  of  servitude^  not  of  freedom. 
And,  now,  shall  we  not  try  at  last  the  Apostolic 
practice  ?  Give  to  the  Red  man  Christ's  Church  as  a 
boon  ;  plant  it  witli  a  native  root ;  plant  it  in  faith, 
and  entrust  its  life  and  growth,  not  to  the  pupilage  of 
man,  but  to  the  never-failing  promise  of  Christ,  and  to 


13 

that  abiding  Spirit,  wMcli,  as  at  this  season,  descend- 
ed on  the  Apostles  with  power.  Let  us  herein,  too, 
show  our  Church  lineage,  and  in  all  our  future  mis- 
sions redeem  past  errors  by  greater  faith  and  a  better 
rule. 

And  behold,  in  the  actual  blessing  attending  mis- 
sions thus  planted,  how  God  is  kindly  tying  our  duties 
to  our  interest!  Looked  at  merely  as  colonies,  the 
Church  of  Christ,  rightly  planted  in  their  infancy, 
is  the  surest  corner-stone  of  their  prosperity,  the 
very  tap-root  of  their  strength,  striking  deepest,  and 
holding  strongest,  in  the  virgin  soil  of  a  new  colony. 
Now  this  statesman-like  lesson  England  owes  to  her 
Church,  and  instrumentally  to  this  her  great  Mission 
Society.  Her  early  colonies,  planted  by  dissent,  were 
slow  of  growth  and  doubtful  of  allegiance.  Those 
planted  by  thirst  for  gold  proved  too  often  a  curse  in- 
stead of  a  blessing,  training  men  to  "  sell  for  gold 
what  gold  can  never  buy,"  and  transplanting  to  their 
new  home  the  vices  and  not  the  virtues  of  their  old 
one.  How  different  the  aspect  of  England's  later 
settlements,  where  her  sons,  led  abroad  by  the  same 
ApostoUc  hand  that  blessed  them  at  home,  have  trans- 
ferred to  the  wilderness  their  Church  as  well  as  their 
workshops,  their  faith  and  worship  as  well  as  their  in- 
dustry and  skill !  Established  on  these  principles,  at 
once  statesman-like  and  Christian,  England's  recent  co- 
lonies have  become  the  wonder  and  the  praise  or  envy 
of  the  world,  as  with  giant  strides  they  are  seen  ad- 
vancing to  independent  empire,  and  that  not  through 
the  thorny  path  of  rebellion,  but  that  of  filial  love  and 
unenvied  growth.  And  already,  like  well  trained  pious 
children,  are  they  sending  back  blessings  on  the  mo- 
ther who  bore  them.  I  allude  here  to  the  recent  ex- 
ample, set  in  the  Colonial  Churches  of  Australia  and 


14 

Canada,  of  tlie  organization  of  provincial  and  diocesan 
synods  on  tlie  primitive  model,  with  a  careful  provi- 
sion (at  least  in  one  of  them)  for  lay  representation, 
and  its  due  place  in  council :  thus  exhibiting  to  the 
Church  of  England,  her  own  once  fairest  picture,  with 
her  free  voice  and  independent  legislature*  Of  all  the 
cheering  signs  of  God's  guardian  care  over  her,  tJiis  is 
the  most  cheering ;  and  what  adds  to  its  providential 
aspect  is,  that  such  movement,  including  also  that  of 
one  strong-hearted  Bishop  at  home,  has  been  concur- 
rent^ without  agreement^  and  at  the  extremest  points 
of  the  earth's  diameter,  as  if  by  an  electric  shock. 
The  immediate  results  of  such  movements  may  be 
slight ;  but  their  inward  working  is  deep,  and  their 
eventual  certain.  It  is  a  sure  pledge  that  the  Church 
of  England  shall  again  find  her  voice,  and  no  longer 
have  aliens  or  Infidels  to  lay  down  the  law  of  her 
faith. 

And  here  it  is  due  to  the  memory  of  the  acknowl- 
edged greatest  of  our  own  Bishops  to  add,  that,  on 
his  visit  to  England  thirty  years  ago,  while  such  evils 
were  still  latent  there,  he  had  alike  the  sagacity  to 
perceive  and  the  frankness  to  urge  them  upon  the 
Primate  of  all  England,  and  also  the  necessity  of  mak- 
ing timely  provision  against  what  has  now  actually  oc- 
curred— I  mean  the  worldly  judgment  of  a  political 
council  (by  whatever  name  called)  affecting  to  over- 
rule an  article  of  the  Church's  creed — our  Bishop  re- 
spectfully unfolding  to   him,  at  the  same  time,  our 

*  Among  other  wise  and  primitive  provisions,  is  that  of  Bishop  Field 
(Newfoundland)  touching  the  Church's  independent  support,  by  uniting 
it  with  its  discipline  :  a  substitute  for  its  ancient  income  from  the  produce 
of  the  soil.  Another  pleasing  feature  in  the  Colonial  movement,  and  one 
that  carries  us  back  to  the  olden  time,  is  the  endowment  of  its  Bishoprics 
by  the  zeal  of  individuals  :  two  at  least,  one  by  Miss  Coutts  of  London, 
the  other  by  a  brother  and  sister  unnamed. 


15 

American  forms  of  Church,  legislation.     Not,  brethren, 
that  we  are  herein  entitled  to  boast.    Our  own  Church 
organization  admits  of  our  taking  a  lesson,  as  well  as 
giving  it ;  and  that,  too,  out  of  the  more  primitive  forms 
of  this  recent  development.     And  this  I  add  in  two 
points :  first,  in  the  adoption  oi provincial  synods  as  in- 
termediate in  our  wide  land  between  Diocesan  and  Na- 
tional conventions ;  and,  secondly,  in  entrusting  Church 
legislation   but   to  those   among  the  laity  in  whom 
dwells  the  habitual  grace  of  sacramental  obedience,  and 
even  then,  as  regulated  by  primitive  model.     Nor  let 
such  bold  suggestions  here  stand  unsupported.     The 
recorded  judgment  of  the  venerable  Bishop  White  ; 
the   familiar  and   well   known  sentiments  of  Bishop 
Hobart ;  the  common  feeling  of  all  educated  Church- 
men; as  well  as  the  definite  scheme  of  the  present 
Bishop  of  Western  New- York,  recently  spread  before 
the  General   Convention :   all   recognize   our  present 
national  Church  organization  as  demanding  re-adjust- 
ment, owing  to  our  rapid  enlargement  of  bounds,  and 
(I  will  venture  to  add)  the  preponderating  power,  so 
often  felt  in  our  conventions,  of  untrained  and  unspirit- 
ual  laymen.  But  to  return.  In  these,  her  colonies  as  well 
as  her  children,  England  hath  renewed  not  only  the 
strength  of  her  youth,  but  the  wisdom  of  her  manhood  ; 
so  that  even  when  the  fate  of  nations  shall  overhang  her 
Insular  Empire,  like  clouds  over  a  setting  sun,  (which, 
may  God  long  avert !)  even  then,  in  these,  her  far-spread 
Christian  offspring,  shall  she  freshly  survive.     In  that 
day  of  sorrow,  when  it  shall  come,  Savages,  tamed  l>y 
her  to  humanity,  shall  weep   at  her  bier ;    Nations, 
who,  at  her  bidding,  have  cast  away  their  idols,  sliall 
kneel  for  her  in  prayer  ;  while  her  own  countless  sons, 
in   Christian  States  of  her  planting,   shall  chant  her 
praise.     These  all,  when  that  day  comes,  shall  rise  up 


16 

in  the  reverence  of  sorrow,  like  tlie  children  of  ancient 
Israel  around  the  Patriarch's  dying  bed,  and  recount 
each  to  the  other  their  own  debt  of  gratitude ;  and 
deepest  of  all,  their  gratitude  for  a  Church,  pure,  pri- 
mitive and  Catholic. 

But  this  is  a  day,  not  of  forecasting  gloom,  but 
of  grateful  remembrance.  Let  us,  then,  of  the  Church 
of  America,  once  the  child,  now  the  sister  of  the 
Church  of  England,  look  back  to  our  own  debt  to 
this  Venerable  Society,  whose  Jubilee  we  celebrate. 
The  story  of  its  labors  among  us  need  not  be  told: 
it  is  written  all  around  us,  without  and  within,  like 
the  prophetic  scroll — only  in  joy,  not  woe.  Visible 
on  our  soil,  that  story  is  embodied  in  the  Churches 
it  has  erected;  is  legible  in  our  history  in  the 
faithful  pastors,  teachers  and  catechists  it  so  long 
gave  us;  and  engraven  on  our  hearts  in  thankful 
Christian  remembrance.  Nor  in  om*  Churches  only 
has  its  wise  and  bountiful  hand  left  its  mark.  That 
mark  has  been  stamped  indelibly  on  our  oldest  and 
best  school  and  college  in  this  Diocese.  It  has  ever 
been  among  the  chief  glories  of  the  Church  of  England, 
that,  wherever  it  has  gone,  at  home  or  abroad,  it  has 
consecrated  education.  Sucn  was  its  course  here,  and 
God's  blessing  has  followed  it.  Of  Trinity  School, 
whose  teachers  and  scholars  I  see  before  me,  it  was  the 
parent,  the  nurse,  and  the  liberal  patron ;  so  that  the 
choral  voices  we  have  this  day  heard,  were  the  voices 
of  that  Society's  thankful  children.  So,  too,  do  I  see 
before  me  the  familiar  faces  of  the  professors  and 
students  of  our  own  ancient  College,  uniting  here  in 
thankful  remembrance  of  the  earliest  of  their  patrons, 
and  the  most  liberal  of  their  donors,  save  and  except 
one  donor  almost  identical  with  the  Venerable  Society 
— the  equally  venerable  Church  within  whose  walls  I 


17 

now  speak.  But  that  greater  debt  of  gratitude  less- 
ens not  tlie  thankfulness  of  the  College  to  the  Founder 
of  its  library — ^its  Founder  both  in  books  and  money* — 
and  still  less,  its  gratitude  for  the  lesson  then  set — 
which,  it  trusts,  it  has  well  learned — of  making  religion 
the  corner-stone  of  all  secular  learning. 

But  what  is  the  whole  story  of  their  labors,  other 
than  the  primitive  picture  of  its  Missionaries  carry- 
ing out  the  Church's  teaching,  as  exhibited  in  patient, 
persevering,  self-denying,  ministerial  duty,  amid  foes 
and  fears,  privations  and  trials,  cold  fiiends,  and 
bitter  enemies  ?  It  is  not  my  intention  here  to  tell 
that  story.  It  has  already  been  better  told  by 
those  familiar  with  its  details.  The  annals  on  earth 
of  these  devoted  men  are  few  and  obscure,  for  they 
were  workers,  not  talkers,  in  their  Lord's  vineyard. 
Their  record  is  in  Heaven.  *  Yet  even  in  the  little 
that  does  remain,  we  read  a  narrative  not  easily  paral- 
leled, in  at  least  two  noble  features  of  the  Church's 
Missionary.  First,  in  their  patient,  unflinching  endur- 
ance ;  the  enthusiasm  not  of  sentiment,  but  of  duty ; 
taking  hold  on  their  mission,  as  men  do  on  the  daily 
work  of  life,  heartily  :  and  this  was  the  more  to  their 
honor,  as  they  had  little  oversight,  save  God  and  their 
own  consciences.  And,  secondly,  theii'  unbending 
maintenance  of  the  Church's  teachings,  in  her  faith, 
ministry,  sacraments  and  catechism.  This,  again,  has 
something  in  it  of  the  heroic  strain,  for  they  were  sur- 
rounded and  pressed  by  every  temptation  life  could 
bring,  to  the  concealment  or  modification  of  unpopular 
doctrine.  But  though  feeble,  they  were  fearless  men- 
Their  only  outcry  was  for  a  Bishop  "  to  visit  all  the 

*  The    Society  laid  the  foundation  of  the  College  Library  by  the  gift 
of  1500  volumes  and  ^£500  in  money. 


18 

churclies,"  they  said,  "  to  ordain  some,  conJSrm  others, 
and  bless  all."  Their  only  quarrel  was,  that  he  came 
not.  "  We  have  cried,"  to  use  their  own  bitter  words  in 
writing  home,  "till  our  hearts  ache,  and  ye  own  'tis  the 
call  and  cause  of  God,  and  yet  ye  have  not  heard,  or 
have  not  answered,  and  that's  all  one."  {Talhots  Let- 
ters.)  But  by  whom,  we  ask,  was  such  call  unheard  ? 
Not  by  the  Society,  whose  Missionaries  they  were, 
but  by  the  worldly  policy,  as  blind  as  it  was  un- 
christian, of  the  State  and  statesmen  who  overruled  it, 
and  who  left  it  for  more  than  a  hundred  years,  unaided 
and  unsupported,  to  individual  exertion.  The  Vener- 
able Society  memorialized  for  Bishops  to  America, 
made  financial  provision  for  them,  received  dona- 
tions for  them ;  and  dying  members  left  legacies  for 
them.  Nor  was  it  the  GhurcKs  neglect.  An  Episco- 
pate in  the  colonies  was,*  from  the  first,  part  of  the 
Church's  battle.  It  was  a  feature  in  Laud's  policy, 
and  one  of  the  bitter  taunts  that  brought  him  to  the 
block.  Let  Churchmen  remember  tlmt  to  his  honor. 
With  him  fell  that  hope.  Again,  from  the  very  pe- 
riod of  the  Church's  restoration  in  1660,  it  was  an 
abiding  object  of  interest  to  give  the  Episcopate  to  the 
colonies.  Virginia,  the  Old  Dominion,  was  to  be  first 
blest  with  that  boon ;  and,  under  the  guidance  of  Eng- 
land's one  wise  and  religious  statesman  in  tJiat  day,  a 
patent,  in  1665,  was  actually  made  out:  but  what 
piety,  with  Clarendon,  had  planned,  infidelity,  with 
Buckingham  and  his  sneering  cabal,  rejected.  A  still 
bolder  subsequent  movement  on  the  part  of  the  Bi- 
shop of  London,  to  whose  diocese  the  colonies  were 
attached — the  actual  consecration  of  a  Suffragan 
Bishop* — was  defeated  by  a  still  harsher  process,  a 

*  The  Rev.  M.  Colebatch,  of  Maryland. 


19 

writ  addressed  to  the  Bishop  elect,  "  Tie  exeat  regnoP 
Again,  in  the  Church's  last  free  convocation,  Arch- 
bishop Sharpe  moved  it,  good  Queen  Anne  favored  it, 
and  Sherlock  and  Seeker  were  both  zealous  for  it. 
Not,  therefore,  on  the  Church  of  England  rests  this 
charge :  but  upon  rulers  who  deserved  not  the  title  of 
statesmen,  since  they  either  Knew  not,  or  cared  not, 
for  that  which  yet  underlies,  and  must  underlie,  all 
human  polity — Religion — "the  very  bond  of  peace 
and  of  all  virtues." 

It  were  idle  here  to  conjecture  what  would  have 
been  the  present  condition  of  the  Church  in  this 
country,  had  the  Episcopate  been  early  given  to  it.  It 
is  sufficient  that  God's  providence  ordered  it  otherwise, 
and  doubtless,  in  the  end,  well ;  if  we  who  now  enjoy 
it  be  but  faithful.  Even  to  human  eyes,  one  blessing 
is  apparent.  It  has  left  our  Episcopate  untainted  with 
even  the  shadow  of  state  patronage — a  charge  that^ 
in  this  land  of  jealous  freedom,  might  have  j^roved 
a  stumbling  block  in  its  path — a  path  w^hich  now, 
under  God's  wiser  providence,  is  left  to  our  Church 
plain  and  free.  In  what  relation  our  Church  now 
stands  to  our  country,  let  that  country  judge.  We 
have  heard  true  statesmen  rank  her  (though  themselves 
not  of  her)  as  among  its  highest  blessings,  even  in  this 
world's  arithmetic  ;  as  being  a  Church  alike  scriptural 
and  conservative ;  not  only  as  the  preacher  of  peace, 
union,  order,  and  good  government,  but  as  the  most 
efficient  conservator  of  them  ;  as  the  best  moral  police 
of  the  nation,  restraining  all  the  wild  excesses  of  fa- 
naticism ;  instructing  both  rulers  and  people  in  the 
soundest  principles  of  law  and  liberty ;  and  teach- 
ing unto  all  who  will  hear,  alike  by  her  doctrines, 
her  discipline,  and  her  worship,  how  all  the  duties  of 


20 

the  good  citizen  are  bound  up  intercliangeably  in  the 
same  bundle  with  the  duties  of  the  good  Christian. 

But  there  is  a  deeper  question  touching  the  relation 
in  which  our  Church  stands  to  our  country,  and  one 
which,  tender  as  it  may  be,  cannot  but  be  this  day 
alluded  to.  K  Chiist's  altar  be  but  One,  on  whom, 
in  our  land,  rests  the  ginit  of  schism  ?  We  content 
ourselves  with  a  simple  answer — not  on  us.  Certainly 
not  on  those,  either  in  law  or  fact,  whose  Church  came 
in,  with  its  first  settlements,  as  part  arid  parcel  of  the 
Established  Church  of  the  mother  country.  In  what- 
ever light  looked  at,  thus  it  stands.  It  came  mjirst 
by  prescriptive  right,  with  English  sovereignty.  It 
came  in  first  by  legal-  provision,  with  the  earliest 
patent,  viz.,  that  of  Virginia  to  Raleigh  and  his  lost 
colonies.  It  came  in^rs^  too,  mfact^  embodied  in  the 
very  earliest  settlement  permanently  made — that  of 
Jamestown,  in  1607 :  and  all  this,  years  before  dissent 
crept  in  through  the  Pilgrims  (as  they  are  termed) 
on  Plymouth  Rock — ^for  even  with  them,  it  was  but 
surreptitiously  introduced — and  half  a  century  before 
Roman  claims  came  in  under  the  patent  of  Maryland 
to  Lord  Baltimore.  These,  at  least,  are  the  facts  of 
the  case.  The  altar  first  erected  within  the  colonies 
was  that  altar  at  which  we  are  this  day  about  to 
kneel ;  and  the  voice  of  praise  and  prayer  fii-st  heard 
in  these  lands,  was  that  very  voice  and  those  very 
words  which  we  ourselves  have  this  day  used  in  our 
solemn  Jubilee.  Now  I  press  not  conclusions  from 
these  facts ;  they  must  speak  for  themselves.  One  only 
I  would  draw :  it  is,  that  our  parochial  bounds  should 
cover  the  land ;  for  we,  at  least,  are  not  intruders  in 
any  part  of  it.  Owr  cure  of  souls  should  have  no 
other  local  limits  than  our  country's  boundaries. 


21 

But  to  turn  to  wliat  constitutes  tlie  deeper  duties  of 
this  Jubilee.  As  in  ancient  Israel,  so  now :  this  day, 
and  this  year,  is  for  the  solemn  settlement  of  metes 
and  bounds;  then  among  the  tribes  of  Israel,  now 
among  the  various  branches  of  Christ's  Church  Catho- 
lic, One  yet  multiform  ;  like  the  natural  body,  many 
members,  but  one  Head;  many  administrations,  yet 
one  Lord.  Now,  as  then,  the  Jubilee  comes  round  as 
the  year  of  "Restitution,"  each  tribe  to  its  own 
bounds :  and  although  this  be  the  Jubilee  of  but  one 
branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  yet  does  it  demand 
the  principles  that  are  to  regulate  all.  The  unjustly 
bound  are  to  go  free ;  all  false  claims  are  to  be  given 
up ;  and  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  and  the  bond  of 
peace,  all  the  branches  of  Christ's  Church  Catholic  are 
to  find  their  common  mission,  and  yet  iheiv  peculiar 
field.  Now  this  is  a  view  of  our  own  high  duties, 
brethren,  as  far  above  my  feeble  powers  fully  to  un- 
fold, as  its  adequate  treatment  would  be  beyond  the 
limits  of  a  reasonable  discourse.  And  yet,  under  a  deep 
sense  of  the  solemn  questions  it  opens,  and  the  stiU 
deeper  responsibility  which  rests  on  him  who  opens 
them,  would  I  go  on,  as  in  duty  bound,  at  least  to 
touch  on  these  disputed  borders ;  being  well  assured 
that  the  danger  of  speaking  plainly  on  Church  mat- 
ters is  far  less  than  that  of  concealing  them,  and  in- 
finitely less  than  the  danger  involved  in  giving  them 
the  cold  and  careless  go  by. 

"  Every  man  unto  his  possession,  and  every  man 
unto  his  family :"  such  was  the  verbal  law  of  the  Ju- 
bilee. "  Ephraim  is  not  to  en\^  Judah,  nor  Judah  to 
vex  Ephraim :"  this  is  the  moral  interpretation. 
Its  spiritual  and  pro]j1ietic  goes  deeper.  Translated 
into  Gospel  words,  it  runs  thus :    "  Peace  among  the 


22 

varied  brandies  of  tlie  Church,  of  Christ ;  and,  as  the 
basis  of  peace,  a  Jubilee  of  '  Restitution :' " — restitu- 
tion of  rights  denied,  and  of  truths  forgotten ;  and  a 
solemn  recognition  of  mutual  independence  under 
Christ  as  our  common  Head.  The  year  of  Jubilee  was 
ordained  of  old  to  settle  tliat^  as  an  ordinance  for 
ever,  among  the  tribes  of  Israel  tJien ;  among  the 
Churches  of  the  true  Israel  now.  A  duty,  too,  most 
solemnly  enjoined  on  us  by  the  universally  admitted 
canons  of  the  Primitive  Church  before  the  Roman 
Schism  had  rent  it,  though  also,  it  would  seem,  pro- 
phetic thereof.  I  quote  but  one,  the  eighth  canon  of  the 
Ecumenical  Council  of  Ephesus,  A.  D.  431 :  "  If  any 
Bishop  has  so  invaded  a  province,  and  brought  it  by 
force  under  himself,  he  shall  restore  it,  that  the  canons 
of  the  Fathers  may  not  be  transgressed,  nor  the  pride 
of  secular  dominion  be  privily  introduced  under  the 
appearance  of  a  sacred  office,  nor  we  lose,  by  little,  the 
freedom  which  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  deliverer  of 
all  men,  has  given  us  by  His  own  blood." 

This  then,  brethren,  is  the  more  solemn  part  of  our 
duty  this  day ;  not  mere  thankful  rejoicing,  but  the 
examining  and  verifying  our  ancient  landmarks,  in 
order  that  wherever  fraud  or  unjust  assumption  on  the 
part  of  others  has  invaded  them,  or  our  own  sinful 
neglect  has  permitted  them  to  fall  into  decay  and  for- 
getfulness,  we  may  there  cai'efully  Q^eset  and  strength- 
en them.  To  this  end,  the  union  of  all  Churches  of 
the  English  Communion  wheresoever  scattered,  which 
this  day  calls  forth,  not  only  affords  the  fit  occa- 
sion, but  of  itself  both  awakens  the  thought  and  de- 
mands the  investigation ;  that,  as  Churchmen  of  that 
branch,  we  may  know  in  what  relation  we  stand  to 


23 

other  branches,  as  well  as  to  the  civil  authority  under 
which  we  live. 

I  will  venture  to  suggest  a  few  leading  points  of 
inquiry.  First,  as  to  our  Church's  independence  of  the 
civil  government.  This,  in  our  case,  as  American 
Churchmen,  need  not  be  argued.  It  is  plain  and 
unquestioned.  But  as  touching  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, though  equally  true,  it  has  yet  been  question- 
ed, whether  through  ignorance  or  malignity.  To  us, 
brethren,  it  may  be  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  essen- 
tial independence  of  that  Church,  that  we  free-born 
American  Churchmen  feel  ourselves  to  be  part  and 
parcel  of  it.  If  the  Church  of  England  were  indeed 
local  and  national,  the  creature  of  English  law,  how  is 
it,  we  ask,  that  its  heart  could  beat  thus  full  and  free 
here  ?  How  is  it  that  millions  who  never  trod  her 
soil,  nor  owed  her  allegiance,  do  this  day  I'ise  up  as 
one  man  to  do  her  homage  ?  This  point,  then,  at 
least  is  clear.  The  Church  of  England  is  a  purely 
spiritual  body.  Oppressed  and  wronged  she  may  be, 
and  is^  in  the  land  of  her  birth ;  and  that,  too,  by 
those  who  owe  her  filial  obedience  :  but,  like  the  soul 
which,  through  Christ,  she  comes  to  save,  she  knows 
not  of  human  chains.  Freedom  is  her  birthright ;  and 
when  endurance  of  wrong  ceases  to  be  a  \drtue,  she 
can  flee  even  as  a  dove,  far  away  and  be  at  rest,  as 
free  from  the  control  of  man,  as  God's  wind  "  that 
bloweth  where  it  listeth." 

But  to  a  second  point  of  that  Church's  Christian 
freedom — her  inalienable  Catholic  indej^endence,  as  a 
primitive  branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  Tracing 
her  origin  through  the  British  Church  to  apostolic 
times  and  men,  to  St.  Joseph  of  Arimatliea,  as  one  early 
narrative  ran ;  or  to  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles, 


24 

as  tlie  more  current  tradition  went,  and  as  the  words 
of  St.  Clement  of  Rome,  St.  Paul's  companion,  would 
seem  to  imply,  viz.,  tliat  lie  preached  the  Gospel  in 
the  farthest  West :  it  is  yet  manifest,  by  whomso- 
ever planted,  it  was  not  from  Rome,  or  with  Roman 
usages ;  since  the  filial  adherence  of  that  early  British 
Church  to  their  primitive  Eastern  customs,  more  es- 
pecially in  the  day  of  keeping  the  festival  of  Easter — 
which  was  the  earliest  dividing  question  between  the 
Roman  and  Eastern  Churches — this,  together  with 
their  equally  stern  rejection  of  Roman  submission, 
as  of  a  thing  utterly  unheard  of  and  unknown  in 
their  whole  history  (all  which  we  have  recorded 
at  large  by  the  venerable  Bede), — these  were  the  very 
grounds  of  the  Roman  charge  of  heresy  against 
them,  when,  after  five  centuries  of  native  free- 
dom, Roman  Missionaries,  who  came  to  convert  the 
heathen  Saxon,  would  fain  have  converted,  from  their 
Christian  freedom,  their  British  brethren ;  and  that, 
too,  in  the  very  face  of  all  Ecumenical  canons 
forbidding  such  interference,  and  which  they  them- 
selves had  solemnly  consented  to.  I  quote  but  one : 
"The  rights  which  have  heretofore  and  from  the 
beginning  belonged  to  each  province,  shall  be  pre- 
served to  it  pure  and  without  restraint,  according  to 
the  custom  which  has  prevailed  of  old."*  Again,  a 
still  earlier  one  :  "  Bishops  must  not  go  beyond  their 
dioceses,  and  enter  upon  Churches  without  their  bor- 
ders, nor  bring  confusion  into  their  Churches."f 

From  the  primitive  seed  thus  sown  by  Apostolic  men, 
in  the  Apostolic  age,  in  the  hearts  of  a  simple,  brave 

*  Council  of  Ephesus,  A.  D.  431,  Canoa  VIII. 

t  Council  of  Constantinople,  A.  D.  381,  Canon  II.  See  also  the  Canoni 
of  Sardica  and  Carthage. 


25 

and  faithful  people,  came  forth  united  with  the  Saxon 
stream,  the  Church  of  England,  free  and  apostolic, 
calling  no  man  master  save  Christ,  and  going  through 
all  it3  trials,  whether  of  temporal  or  spiritual  tyranny, 
to  use  the  Church's  own  words  to  King  Henry  VIII., 
"  Salvo  GliristoP  Now,  but  for  Rome's  arrogant  as- 
sumptions, founded  upon  Augustine's  mission,  and  her 
total  oblivion  of  the  primitive  Church  of  Britain,  that 
mission  of  charity  would  deserve,  in  many  respects,  to 
be  more  kindly  spoken  of  But  as  things  now  stand, 
the  Church  of  England  has  no  choice.  Against  a 
usurping  Church,  she  is  bound  to  re-assert  her  primi- 
tive land-marks ;  and  on  this  day  of  Jubilee  to  put 
back  definitively  all  encroachments  on  them. 

But  to  one  other  great  and  apostolic  branch  of 
Christ's  Church,  it  may  be  well  to  turn  our  attention, 
were  it  but  for  the  conclusive  overthrow  it  gives  to 
that  TTporoT^  ^er^og  (to  use  a  hard  yet  just  term,)  where- 
by Papal  Rome  seeks  to  beguile  ignorant  minds,  viz., 
that  she  is  the  "  mother'  of  all  Churches ;"  and  this 
while  she  herself  is,  in  "her  origin,  but  a  mission 
branch  of  another's  planting,  but  a  graft  from  an  earlier 
stock — a  stock,  too,  which  still  survives  to  claim  and 
justify  its  seniority — the  Holy  Catholic  CnuEcn  of 
THE  East.  This  still  not  only  survives,  but  flourishes, 
with  its  several  independent  patriarchs,  its  ancient 
creeds  and  primeval  liturgies,  and  with  almost  one- 
third  of  all  Christendom  within  its  pale.  How,  then, 
in  the  name  of  common  sense,  can  Rome  venture  to 
ignore  the  very  existence  of  these  elder  claimants,  and 
that,  too,  in  the  face  of  her  own  liturgy  borrowed 
fi'om  them,  and  her  own  Gospels  translated  from  their 
originals !  Who  instructed,  we  may  ask,  her  Latin 
tongue,  even  to  read  the  Greek  Gospels  in  the  language 


26 

in  wliicli  they  were  written  ?  Who,  save  those  who 
brought  it  to  her,  and  taught  it  to  her  ?  And  who, 
again,  inserted  in  her  liturgy  those  early  sacred  words 
of  which  she  is  so  proud,  but  of  which  no  Roman  un- 
derstood the  meaning  till  Greek  Christians  taught  him 
— "  Ki'pfg  zkiYidovy  Were  there  nothing  else,  we  say,  to 
give  the  lie  to  Rome's  arrogant  pretensions  to  be 
the  mother  of  all  churches  (that  first  demand  she 
makes  on  all  her  converts,  the  first  words  of  her  Tri- 
dentine  Catechism),  these  Greek  words  above  would 
be  the  sufficient  refutation:  for  they  stand,  under 
her  own  seal,  undeniably,  as  her  own  acknowledgment. 
Now,  among  the  subdivisions  of  this  apostolic  and 
earliest  of  all  branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
a  secondary  branch  is  found,  rivalling  even  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  its  bounds,  and  almost  in  its  mem- 
bers— I  mean  the  Russian  Church,  as  apart  from  the 
patriarchates  of  the  East :  towards  her,  our  present  po- 
sition and  our  future  relations  afford  matter  for  deep 
reflection.  Between  that  Church  and  our  own,  there 
exists,  no  doubt,  a  wide  present  separation,  but  still 
no  disunion ;  a  gulf  of  ignorance^  not  of  hostility ; 
we  confounding  them  with  Rome,  and  they  %i8  with 
Calvin  and  Luther.  This  gulf,  therefore,  is  one 
which  Christian  sympathy  and  better  knowledge  may 
in  time  bridge  ov^er:  not,  as  that  between  us  and 
Rome,  a  gulf  now  imjyassaMe^  were  it  for  no  other  reason 
than  simply  her  arrogant  denial  of  our  very  exist- 
ence as  a  branch  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  This  is  our 
world-wide  separation  from  Rome,  viz.,  that  she  is  not 
Catholic  ;  that  her  claim  to  supremacy  is  a  schism  in 
Christ's  body  :  and  on  this  day  we  are  to  stand  on  that 
imjyregnaUe  ground.  Now  such  unchristian  claim  ap- 
pears not  in  the  Eastern  Church.     Her  anathemas  are 


27 

all  directed  against  heresies,  not  against  rebels  to  her 
authority ;  and  wherever  wrongly  uttered,  they  are  so 
in  ignorance^  not  in  pride  :  for  she  holds  all  to  be  with- 
in the  Catholic  name,  who  acknowledge  the  Catholic 
creeds,  and  are  under  an  Apostolic  ministry.  And  if 
she  know  not  that  we  hold  to  the  one,  and  live  under 
the  other,  and  "that  we  siDe(w  not  in  the  words  of 
Luther  or  Calvin :  why  it  is  simply  her  ignorance  of 
facts,  in  which  we  may  enlighten  her.  Between  our 
branch  and  the  Eastern,  therefore,  there  exists  no  in- 
superable bar  (the  "  iilioque"  of  the  Mcene  Creed  not 
being  thus  regarded).  No  synodical  action  on  the  one 
part  or  the  other  has  ever  separated  these  two  : — no 
protest  from  our  side,  no  usurpation  on  theirs.  So 
that  if  the  lost  unity  of  Christ's  Church  is  ever  on 
earth  to  be  restored,  it  would  seem  to  human  eyes  as 
if  through  this  link  it  was  to  be  begun,  viz.,  intercom- 
munion between  the  Anglican  and  Eastern  branches  ; 
and  that  were  indeed  a  day  of  Jubilee  that  should 
see  this  link,  so  long  broken  (for  once  in  the  British 
Church  it  did  exist),  restored.  To  such  thoughts,  at 
least,  God's  providence  seems  guiding  us,  by  bring- 
ing the  two  Churches  into  nearer  contact.  It  may 
be  wise,  therefore,  to  be  prepared  for  a  question  that, 
at  any  moment,  may  be  sprung  upon  the  Church 
for  practical  decision.  On  our  Pacific  coast,  for  in- 
stance, if  not  elsewhere,  such  question  cannot  be 
long  delayed.  "  In  what  light  are  Eussian  Church- 
men to  be  regarded  by  us  ?  As  Home  looks  at 
them,  rebels  and  heretics  ?  or  as  the  followers  of 
Calvin,  as  fit  sul)jects  for  a  proselyting  mission? 
Or,  again,  as  primitive  principles  teach  us,  as  mem- 
bers of  a  great  and  independent  branch  of  Christ's 
Church  Catholic,  ha^dng  their  descent  from  earliest 


28 

time,  having  within  their  own  national  limits  rightfvl 
Christian  jmisdiction  ;  and  as  a  Church,  however  dif- 
fering from  us,  holding,  with  a  tenacity  beyond  all 
others,  to  the  Symbols  of  our  common  Faith,  to  the 
Nicene  Creed,  to  ancient  Canons,  and  to  all  primitive 
usages.  Through  another  channel,  too,  is  this  question 
opening  upon  us :  I  allude  to  the  personal  appeal*  of  a 
minister  of  the  Anglican  Communion,  whom  providen- 
tial circumstances  have  recently  made  prominent,  to 
serve  either  as  a  link  of  communion,  or  a  bar  of  separa- 
tion, between  the  two  Churches  ;  and  whose  earnest  ap- 
peal to  our  Church  for  its  sympathy  and  decision  arrived 
but  a  few  days  too  late  to  be  spread  before  our  last 
General  Convention.  Such  are  the  prospects  of  this 
question's  coming  up  before  us  specifically  for  a  synodic 
decision.  Now  it  is  easy  to  say,  that  such  personal 
appeal  is  too  narrow  a  basis  for  the  action  of  a  National 
Church.  I  would  respectfully  suggest  the  reverse; 
and  that  on  no  other  basis  has  the  Church  ever  acted, 
in  her  great  doctrinal  decisions,  from  the  time  of  Atha- 
nasius  down.  Every  added  article  to  the  early  creeds, 
every  doctrinal  canon,  even  of  Ecumenical  Councils, 
arose  out  of  individual  interests  and  questions.  They 
were  all,  like  tJiis^  personal  cases.  Nor  is  this  peculiar 
to  CJiurch  lesjislation.  Whether  in  human  or  Divine 
law,  the  practice  is  the  same.  Principles  ai^e  things 
intangible.  They  must  be  embodied  before  they  can 
be  touched.  But  when  embodied,  the  respect  mth 
which  they  are  looked  upon  is  regulated,  not  by  the 


*  The  appeal  of  the  Rev.  William  Palmer,  deacon ;  addressed  to  the 
Right  Rev.  the  Bishops,  and  to  the  Diocesan  Synods  or  Conventions  of  the 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  :  sent  and  communicated,  (by 
him,)  to  be  made  known  to  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  and  to  be  dealt  with 
eynodicaUy  in  such  manner  as  they  shall  think  right. 


29 

case,  but  by  tlie  principle  involved.  The  trial  of 
Hampden,  for  instance,  on  a  question  of  twenty  shil- 
lings of  ship  money,  shook  all  England  to  its  centre. 
I  enter  not  into  the  difficulties  that  may  surround  this 
question,  whether  of  doctrine  or  tribunal.  One  word, 
however,  as  touching  the  latter.  It  is  this,  that  until 
our  lay  delegations  are  regulated  on  more  primitive 
principles  than  at  present,  the  Church  cannot  look 
with  rightful  confidence  to  any  synodical  action  deter- 
mining, through  them,  the  great  doctrines  of  Catholic 
Union. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  under  this  distinction  of 
Independent  National  Churches,  what  becomes  of 
that  unity  for  which  Christ  prayed,  and  by  which  His 
Disciples  were  to  be  known  ?  The  answer  is  plain. 
National  Churches  are  no  bar  to  Church  unity  now, 
any  more  than  the  respective  Churches  founded  by 
the  different  Apostles  in  Syria,  Greece,  Italy  or  Egypt, 
were  at  the  fii'st.  Then,  as  now,  there  were  National 
or  Provincial  Churches,  differing  in  language,  customs, 
manner  of  life,  ritual,  and  even  in  great  and  important 
doctrinal  practices ;  as  we  see  in  the  primitive  branch 
at  Jerusalem,  which  for  ages  retained  many  Jewish  cus- 
toms. These  all  regulated,  by  inherent  right,  each  its 
own  affairs.  Thus  decreed  the  second  General  Council 
of  the  Church,  that  of  Constantinople :  "  The  Synod  of 
each  province  must  administer  the  affairs  of  the  pro- 
vince." Yet  all  this  broke  not  the  unity  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  That  came  from  one  faith,  one 
creed,  one  Lord,  one  baptism,  and  one  pervading 
spirit  and  power  of  love,  acting  through  the  same 
Apostolic  ministry,  and  evinced  by  intercommunion. 
Thence  came  the  Church's  true  v/nity^  and  thence  true 
Catliolicity ;  the  unity,  not  of  a  mass^  but  of  a  body ; 


30 

unity  of  organization  ;  unity  as  we  see  it  ever  in  God's 
works — unity  in  the  midst  of  variety ;  altliougli  many, 
yet  one.  Now  to  tliis  view  of  unity  agree  all  Christ's 
words,  and  all  tlie  Apostles'  teaching,  and  all  the 
Canons  of  the  primitive  Church ;  one  Vine,  yet  many 
branches ;  one  Body,  yet  many  members  ;  one  Spirit, 
yet  many  administrations:  while  breach  of  unity  comes 
Thot  from  parts,  but  parties  ;  not  from  the  mutual  inde- 
pendence of  the  members  of  the  body  or  the  branches  of 
the  vine,  but  from  proud  and  selfish  boasting  among 
them ;  the  hand  exalting  itself  against  the  foot,  and  say- 
ing, "  Because  thou  art  not  the  hand,  thou  art  not  of  the 
Body ;"  or  the  greater  branch,  lording  it  over  God's 
heritage,  and  saying,  "  Because  thou  growest  not  out 
of  me,  thou  art  not  of  the  Root."  From  that  deep  sin  of 
pride  and  schism,  the  Church  of  England,  throughout 
its  communion,  stands  free ;  being  alike  Cathohc  and 
National.  This  union  is  its  perfection:  and  woe  to 
those  who  attempt  to  part  what  God  hath  joined ! 
Woe  to  those  who  merge  its  Catholicity  in  its  Protest- 
antism, as  well  as  to  those  who  exchange  its  distinc- 
tive Anglican  teacliing  for  a  false  Catholicism  ! 

On  these  two  leading  boundary  lines,  therefore,  are 
we  this  day  called  to  give  a  careful  review,  lest  our  an- 
cient landmarks  be  forgotten  as  against  Protestant  dis- 
sent on  the  one  side,  or  Roman  assumption  on  the 
other.  The  English  communion,  while  it  recognizes 
neither,  yet  includes  the  truth  of  both.  "  Catholic" 
is  her  ancient  and  baptismal  name  :  Protestant  but  her 
recent  and  historic  surname ;  incidental,  yet  essen- 
tial, so  long  as  Rome  maintains  her  aggressive,  un- 
catholic  position.  Let  not  Churchmen,  then,  cease  to 
stand  on  their  double  watch.  First,  as  against  bare 
Protestantism,  lest  we  yield  one  jot  or  tittle  of  our 


31 

Catliolic  ground,  in  creed,  discipline,  or  worship,  to 
the  breath  of  popular  opinion,  or  to  the  still  more 
ensnaring  sympathies  of  social  life.  Herein  we  are 
to  stand  "on  guard,"  as  our  fathers  stood,  with  the 
Prayer-book  in  our  hands,  and  the  liturgy  as  our  guide ; 
neither  seeking  nor  fearing  opinions  without,  nor 
ever  doubting  God's  blessing  within,  on  our  Church 
and  work,  so  long  as  we  love  the  one  and  labor  in  the 
other  as  true  watchmen  and  workmen  on  the  walls  of 
our  Israel.  Would  to  God  there  were  herein  less 
danger  to  our  Church's  purity !  But  the  truth  is, 
there  is  much :  like  precious  garments  neglected,  our 
Church  principles  are  eaten  away  silently  by  the  moth 
and  canker-worm  of  worldly  Protestantism ;  and,  when 
we  come  to  use  them,  they  have  neither  warmth  nor 
strength.  But  would  to  God  we  might  again  meet,  as 
brethren  on  the  primitive  platform,  those  whose 
Fathers  once  stood  there  with  our  Fathers,  in  defence 
of  our  common  Mother,  before  dissent  from  her 
was  known,  or  "  Ephraim  envied  Judah,  or  Judah 
vexed  Ephraim !"  But  then  such  union  must  be,  not 
by  amalgamation,  but  by  "  restitution :"  going  back 
to  things  primitive,  by  rising  out  of  the  sectarian  into 
the  Catholic  mind.  And  doubtless,  in  God's  good 
time,  such  re-union,  widely  prayed  for,  shall  take  place. 
And  how  stands  the  prospect  even  now  ?  With  the 
worldly  indifference  that  knows  not  and  cares  not  for 
the  unity  of  the  Church  Catholic,  our  Church  can 
have  no  sympathy :  but  with  earnest  and  longing 
minds  of  whatever  name — earnest  for  truth,  and  long- 
ing for  union — and  who  often  truly  have  the  Church 
mind  while  standing  apart  from  her ;  with  them  the 
Chm'chhas  deep  sympathy,  and  rejoices  to  see  growing 
up  so  widely  in   our  land  a  body  of  reformed  Catho- 


32 

lie  truth,  wliicli  is  daily  bringing  thousands  near  and 
nearer  to  her  and  their  Father's  communion  in  heart 
and  faith;  a  spirit  widely  displaying  itself,  too,  in 
that  revived  Church  architecture,  which  demands — 
to  give  it  full  meaning — the  proprieties  and  usages  of 
the  Church's  solemn  ritual  So  much  for  our  bound- 
aries on  the  side  of  dissent. 

On  the  other  hand,  our  are  landmarks  to  be  laid 
down,  and  our  Christian  birthright  maintained,  with  at 
least  equal  care.  The  recent  act  of  Papal  aggression 
in  England,  ignoring  as  it  does  the  whole  English.  Com- 
munion in  its  jurisdiction  and  ministry,  is  an  attack 
upon  us  as  well  as  upon  them,  and  should  rally  to  the 
call  this  day  all  who  here  love  the  Church,  and  live 
within  its  pale.  But  then  it  is  to  be  met,  not  as 
recently  in  England,  by  popular  clamor ;  but  by  the 
assertion,  calm  yet  solemn,  of  one  clear  primitive  truth — 
"  Catliolic  equality'''  among  all  the  Apostolic  branches 
of  Christ's  Church.]  And  as  to  each  branch  has  been 
given,  by  God's  providence,  its  own  mission,  God's  provi- 
dence marking  to  each  its  field :  so  will  each  have  its 
own  account  to  render.  It  is  the  part  of  wisdom,  then, 
as  well  as  justice,  to  look  each  to  its  own.  We  seek 
not,  therefore  (unless  driven  to  it),  to  sit  in  judgment 
on  Rome,  or  to  inquire  how  far  she  has  used  or  abused 
her  larger  talents.  We  will  not  needlessly  ask  how  far 
selfish  ambition  or  worldly  policy  has  poisoned  in  her 
teaching  the  pure  fountains  of  Gospel  truth,  building 
up  a  kingdom  of  this  world  out  of  the  living  stones  of 
a  kingdom  not  of  this  world.  To  the  great  Master 
each  one  standeth  or  falleth.  But  we  do  claim  to  hold 
our  own  heritage  as  of  Christ's  giving,  equally  with 
hers  ;  as  an  independent  Mission  under  Christ :  and,  we 
fear  not  (in  humility  be  it  spoken)  comparison  with  any 


other  branch  in  the  fidelity  with  which  our,  perhaps, 
but  one  talent  has  been  employed,  or  in  the  Gospel 
fruits  it  has  brought  forth.  Yet  if  others  boast,  we,  at 
least,  may  speak.  As  touching  missions,  from  an  early 
age  the  English  Church  stood  foremost.  "  But  for  her," 
are  the  words  of  an  impartial  historian,  "  the  greater 
part  of  Northern  Europe  had  remained  in  heathen 
darkness."  English  names  are  still  current  there,  as 
the  very  Apostles  of  heathen  Germany ;  and  Wini- 
fred, and  Boniface,  and  the  Good  Doer,  are  still  their 
common  appellations.  Again  when,  in  a  later  age,  the 
restoration  of  letters  brought  upon  Europe  a  spirit  of 
restless,  infidel  inquiry :  it  was  English  piety  and  Eng- 
lish scholarship  that  took  the  lead,  and  did  more  to 
Chi'istianize  that  reasoning  mind  than  all  the  rest  of 
Christendom  combined.  In  the  defence  of  Revela- 
tion and  the  Church,  on  the  grounds  of  reason  and 
Scripture,  where  shall  we  look  for  our  teachers,  save 
among  the  divines  of  the  Church  of  England.^"* 

Herein,  while  Rome  slept,  England  labored ;  so  that 
while  the  Roman  Communion  was  for  centuries  deso- 
lated by  infidelity,  through  all  its  educated  ranks :  the 
Church  of  England  had  won  over  reason  and  learning 
to  the  faith ;  and  it  was  only  vice  and  ignorance  within 
her  pale  that  were  infidel.  And  now,  in  our  own  day, 
denied  as  she  is  her  full  2:>owers  of  action,  yet  where 
shall  Ave  turn  for  triumphs  of  the  cross  greater  or 
more  solid  than  this  day's  commemoration  exhibits  ? 

Our  quarrel,  then,  with  Rome  this  day,  is  simply 


*  I  need  but  mention  Hooker,  for  under  their  owu  acknowledgment, 

"  There  is  no  learning  that  this  man  has  not  searched  into,  nothing  too  hard  for  his  understand- 
ing, and  his  books  wil  get  reverence  by  age." 

Such  was  the  remark  of  Pope  Clement  VII.,  when  a  portion  of  Hooker's 
Preface  was  translated  by  an  English  Romanist  to  him. 


34 

her  breacli  of  Catliolic  unity ;  her  schism  in  Christ's 
Body ;  her  denial  of  equal  rights  to  all  to  whom  Christ 
equally  said,  "  Go  forth,"  "  Take  ye  power :"  and  our 
sole  wonder  is,  her  strange  forgetfulness  that  she  her- 
self is  but  a  younger  branch ;  and  must,  in  point  of  time, 
follow  the  Churches  of  Jerusalem,  Antioch  and 
Greece.  But  of  this  invidious  subject,  enough;  and 
may  God  in  His  great  mercy  give  her  to  see  to  what 
distant,  impossible  future,  her  schismatic  position  is 
putting  off  the  promised  blessing  of  unity  to  be  re- 
stored to  the  Chm'ch  Catholic. 

But,  lastly,  what  shall  we  say  on  this  day  of  Jubilee 
of  our  own  position,  as  the  American  Church  ?  This : 
which  is  the 'more  needful  to  be  said,  inasmuch  as  our 
general  argument  and  frequent  use  of  the  terms  "  Eng- 
lish" and  "  Anglican,"  might  otherwise  be  misinterpre- 
ted. First,  that  the  American  Church  i?^,  under  Christ, 
a  Church  ^'- sui  juris,''''  a  distinct  and  independent 
branch  of  the  Church  CathoHc.  But,  again,  it  is  due 
to  it  further  to  state,  that  it  is  a  Church  uniting  in  its 
Episcopate  and  ministry,  its  liturgy  and  offices,  an- 
other pure  and  early  stream — that  of  the  Episcoj)al 
Church  of  Scotland :  a  union  at  the  time  not  the  result 
of  choice,  and  perhaps  lamented ;  but  now,  it  would 
seem,  2^'^ovidential — thus  to  supply  to  the  new  ^^^orld 
a  Church  more  widely  Catholic  than  the  mere  Angli- 
can Avould  have  been  esteemed,  in  a  land  which  was  to 
be  the  asylum  of  all  nations,  and  therefore  demanded 
a  new  branch  with  American  nationality.  Still,  how- 
ever, do  we  stand  in  a  peculiarly  tender  relation  to 
that  Church  which  we  rigidly  name  our  "Mother 
Church  of  England,"  inheriting,  as  we  do,  from  her,  all 
that  has  adorned,  sanctified  and  blessed  her  history, 
even  from  the  days  of  her  early  British  martyrs  under 


35 

heathen  Rome  till  now :  and  thus  Tier  learning  and  Iw 
piety,  her  ministry  and  her  sacraments,  her  liturgy 
and  her  rites,  and  the  glory  of  her  missions,  are  all 
oui^s ;  ours  to  claim,  and  ours  to  emulate.  This  is  our 
I'ich  heritage ;  and  it  may  well  awaken  us  to  high 
and  noble  thoughts  of  what  our  own  destined  mission 
is  in  this  our  broad  and  fair  land.  England  and 
America  none  can  deny  to  be  the  salient 'points  in  the 
world's  history ;  and  of  this  prominence  our  Church 
partakes.  As  it  has  been,  so  we  may  trust  it  will  con- 
tinue to  be,  a  blessed  and  ever-growing  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  Providence  for  the  regeneration  of  man. 
But,  again,  there  is  something  further  in  our  case 
peculiar.  Npt  only  never  before  or  since  has  the 
Anglican  branch  sent  forth  such  a  strong  and  vigor- 
ous shoot,  but  never  before  in  the  history  of  the 
whole  Church  has  any  Apostolic  branch  of  it  stood 
thus  free  and  untrammelled,  to  do  Christ's  bidding, 
without  let  or  impediment  from  man.  Not  before 
Constantine ;  for  then  heathen  persecution  tied  up  the 
Church's  hands :  nor  since ;  for  worldly  patronage  has 
ever,  till  now,  somewhat  stained  her  purity.  Even  our 
Mother  Church,  from  early  times,  has  been  more  or 
less  overruled  by  the  State.  The  Eiistern  Church  has, 
for  a  thousand  years,  lived  under  infidel  tyrants.  The 
Church  of  Russia  is,  in  temporals,  identified  with  its 
own  empire.  While  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  no  student 
of  history  can  doubt  that,  in  becoming  Papal,  she 
parted  with  her  Christian  freedom:  that  the  Court 
of  Rome  (/.  e.^  Papal  Rome)  has  enslaved  tlie  Church 
of  Rome,  ever  using  it  as  an  instrument  of  human 
power,  to  realize  \\s>  false  ideal  of  the  Church  of  Christ — 
as  a  ruling  kingdom  of  this  world,  emblemed  by  its  two 
swords,  the  temporal  underlying  the  spiritual.     Tliis 


36 

was  its  Gregm^iaii  model  and  symbol,  and  tMs  has  ever 
since  proved  its  hanc. 

It  is  true,  with  all  our  blessings  as  a  National 
Church,  we  may  have  dropped,  in  our  liaste,  some  things 
that  should  have  been  retained.  But  whatever  was 
then  lost  through  hasty  organization,  may  hereafter, 
by  wise  legislation,  be  restored.  In  the  meantime 
we  stand  blest  beyond  our  fellows,  and  may  without 
arrogance,  and  under  a  deep  sense  of  the  responsibility 
it  brings,  apply  to  our  Church  the  prophetic  words : 
"  Enlarge  the  place  of  thy  tent,"  "  lengthen  thy  cords 
and  strengthen  thy  stakes." 

To  us,  brethren,  and  to  our  National  Church,  as  the 
last  set  out  in  the  world's  history,  and  evidently  on 
tlie  world's  last  Western  stage,  does  God  seem  to 
have  reserved  the  higlier  talent  as  well  as  the  greater 
l)lessing  of  bearing  aloft  in  the  New  World,  but  l)e- 
fore  the  whole  world,  the  primitive  Apostolic  banner : 
"  Tli&  Gospel  in  the  Ohnrcli^''  '^^?^inscribed  with  human 
name,  and  -w^zstained  by  worldly  policy.  Only  let  us 
herein  be  humble,  faithful  and  trustful :  and  God  will 
give  us  large  increase,  as  we  see  He  is  already  doing  all 
around  us.  And  the  more  of  worldly  abundance  His 
good  providence  shall  pour  in  upon  our  land,  making 
its  merchants  princes,  and  its  cities  like  ancient  Tyre : 
the  more  humbly  and  prayerfully  let  us  Churchmen 
feel  ourselves  to  be  its  guardians  in  prayer  and  trutli- 
fulness,  mindful  of  the  fate  of  her  who  said  proudly 
among  her  palaces  :  "  I  sit  as  a  queen  ;"  "  I  shall  never 
])e  removed;"  "My  hand  and  the  might  of  mine 
arm  liath  gotten  me  this  Avealtli."  Let  us  all,  in  this 
swelling  pride  of  prosperity,  ])eware  lest  our  land 
provoke  God  to  recall  His  gifts — spiritual  it  may  be, 


3Y 

as  well  as  temporal — and  to  remove  from  us,  alike  our 
candlestick  and  our  golden  stream. 

Permit  me,  brethren,  one  word  in  closing,  touching 
our  own  special  bounds,  as  the  Diocese  of  New- York. 
Shall  not  this  Jubilee  day  bring  home  to  us,  amid  all 
our  trials,  present  and  to  come,  a  lesson  of  peace  and 
wise  union  ?  We  stand  here,  as  it  were,  on  the  thresh- 
old of  our  infant  home,  to  bless  the  womh  that  bore 
us,  the  mothei'  at  whose  breasts  we  were  nourished, 
and  at  whose  knees  we  learned  our  first  prayers.  We 
stand  here,  too,  amid  the  tombs  of  our  venerated 
fathers  in  God,  who,  having  finished  their  course  in 
faith,  do  now  rest  fi'om  their  labors ;  and  who  taught 
us  how  thrice  blessed  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren  to 
dwell  together  in  unity.  Shall  not  this  thought  come 
home  to  us  in  the  desolation  of  our  Diocese,  and 
move  us  to  a  more  loving  union  in  the  great  choice 
that  lies  before  us  ?  Again,  this  day  of  Jubilee,  in 
awakening  us  to  the  renewal  of  our  land-marks,  has 
brouo'ht  before  us  the  dang:ers  that  threaten  us :  on 
the  one  hand,  our  faith ;  on  the  other,  our  freedom. 
Shall  not  this,  too,  bind  us  more  closely  together,  and 
more  especially  as  touching  that  usurping  Church,  the 
dread  of  whose  influence  lies  so  deep  amid  the  causes 
of  our  divisions  ?  Shall  we  not  learn  to  trust  each  other 
a  little  more  kindly  in  loyalty  to  our  own  true  Mother ; 
and  believe  that,  as  there  are  deeper  and  safer 
grounds  of  rejection  of  Rome  than  questions  of  cross 
or  surplice,  or  solemn  decoration  of  God's  altar :  so, 
too,  are  there  deeper  and  safer  grounds  of  j^reference 
of  our  own  Church  than  its  proximity  to  Calvin  or 
Luther ;  and  surer  tests  of  our  attachment  to  it, 
than  any  Avholesale  condemnation  of  whatsoever  is 
found  within  the  limits  of  the  Roman  Communion  ?  • 


38 

But  I  have  done.  This  Jubilee  is  ours  to  rejoice 
and  labor  in :  the  next  ^vill  be  for  our  children,  or  our 
children's  children.  What  changes  shall  intervene  ere 
that  day  come  among  the  branches  of  Christ's  Church, 
who  can  tell  ?  But  we  may  humbly  trust,  that  this  day's 
Jubilee  will  bring  a  blessing  on  at  least  one  thankful 
branch ;  and  that  the  great  re-union  of  this  day  tv^U  not 
be  without  its  happy  influence  on  all.  We  close  ^vith 
the  cheering  hope,  that  the  dark  days  of  the  Church 
of  England  are  past,  and  that  in  finding  its  voice,  it 
will  find  its  strength :  and  that  the  great  and  good 
Society,  whose  Jubilee  we  celebrate,  and  on  whose 
name  and  labors  we  here  invoke  a  blessing,  will  con- 
tinue to  be  a  praise  and  a  glory  in  the  whole  earth, 
till  its  own  mission  be  closed,  through  the  fullness  of 
the  Gentiles  being  gathered  in.     Amen  and  Amen. 


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